74 RAVAGES OF APHIDES. 



than the bulk of its fellows, we shall first single from among 

 them, is no inelegant specimen of nature's Lilliputian work- 

 manship. It has a plump shining body of deep bright green, 

 spotted at the sides with black ; long slender legs, inclining 

 to reddish, and, like a bamboo reed, marked at every joint 

 with black or darkest brown. The shoulders, head, and long 

 jointed antennae are also chiefly black, as well as two diverging 

 spikelets proceeding from the back ; while a pair of ample 

 wings, much longer than the body, rise erectly over it. 



This pretty insect, and those which resemble it, look like the 

 aristocracy of the wingless multitude by which they are sur- 

 rounded; and though we cannot pronounce their pinions to 

 be borne as badges of rank, we believe that no reason has, as 

 yet, been assigned with certainty for the partial distribution 

 among Aphis tribes of the organs of flight, which do not with 

 them, as with various other insects, serve as a distinction either 

 of age or sex. 



If we examine, now, the wingless multitude the canaille 

 of our rose-bud we shall find that the individuals which 

 compose it have shorter legs and flatter bodies than their 

 winged superiors, and that they differ exceedingly in size from 

 one another. For the most part their colour is a light green, 

 though some are of a pale red ; but however else they differ, 

 all, both winged and wingless, are furnished with one remark- 

 able appendage common to the whole Aphis tribe, to whatever 

 plant peculiar, from the lordly oak to the lowly briar. This 

 is the haustellum, trunk, or sucking-pipe, appended beak-like 

 to the head, and which, consisting of a tube both pointed and 

 perforated, serves the double purpose of piercing the leaf and 

 sucking its juices. 



The pipes of these our little ravagers of the rose are but as 

 beaklets compared with those of their brethren of the oak; 1 

 yet they form, we can tell you, no despicable instruments of 



1 Oak Aphides, {A. qmrcus). 



